A textile is a material comprised of a network of fibres, that can for instance be manufactured by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or pressing fibres together. For this purpose, interlocked fibres known as yarns or threads may be used.
Many types of textiles are used in our every day life. When electronic components (i.e. devices that work by controlling the flow of electrons) are integrated into a textile new application fields emerge. When the textile is an integral part of the electrical circuit comprising the electronic components, an electronic textile is obtained.
An example of an electronic component is a LED package in the form of a surface mounted device (SMD-LED), which can be attached to a textile substrate by gluing, soldering, snap button connection or stitching. The resulting light-emitting textile could open up a wide range of new interior and apparel applications, ranging from illumination to atmosphere creation to messaging.
An electronic textile is known from UK patent application GB2396252A. The known electronic textile comprises SMD-LED's which are mounted at designated positions on a textile either by hand or by using conventional equipment known from the electronics assembly industry, such as a pick-and-place apparatus. The SMD-LED's are electrically addressable via conductive tracks, which are either formed from yarns woven into the textile, or from tracks printed onto the textile.
A drawback of the known electronic textile is that once it has been made, its size is fixed. For example, an electronic textile comprising a 7×7 matrix of SMD-LED's, once made, can only make a 7×7 display system.
For applications of electronic textiles that require coverage of large areas, there is a need for larger-sized systems.